Work Ethic 1

Hello to all those who have gone through tough decisions due to poor work ethics of others! I am going to talk about specific topics each blog. Some will have the same values mentioned a few times, meaning they must be important. Some may be vague due to the lack in experience with those areas. And some might either strike your interests or may upset you a bit. I do not apologize for any of these for they are my opinions and should be seen as such, thank you.

I will start out by saying that most people were hired into fast food at some point in their lives. Those that have never had to work fast food jobs will still understand most, if not all of this. Most of us that were hired into a fast food job learned about team work. These jobs would not function without this super important skill! So if you did, in fact, work a fast food job at a young age then you learned early about working as a team. Those of you that are still at those fast food jobs, running that store like a boss, you my friend, are the image of team work! Along side many other jobs.

Alright, time to get down to business! Key points in knowing how to gain work ethic while working with a team;

First one being, you need to show up to your shift. That, all in all, is how you keep the job in the first place. Make sure you clock in when you should be, being completely ready to work and checking to see who is the LOD. (lead on duty) Check in, find out where you need to be and prepare.

Signs of bad work ethic: completely obvious here is a no call, no show. Being late every shift or more than one a month. Clocking in on time but not ready for the shift. This happens all the time, let's face it, we all have done that a few times. Not working fast enough or just not in sync with the rest of the team. This list can go on.

Second is playing well with others. Now, we all know that at work personal life is left at the door. But honestly, if we did that, what would we talk about? The weather? Let's be honest, hearing someone else's life story keeps us from thinking about our own life for a bit. (Side note-I am basing this off of working fast food, not other businesses that have more involved with day to day tasks). This also helps with getting along with others, not a means of bullying or talking behind that persons back. BUT, there is a limit that has to be drawn with this one. You can talk, you can cry and you can WORK while doing it, then we are good! Others may give you advise, laugh at you or just down right be mean. This is when you know you have passed that limit. This can make the person stop working as well or as part of the team or just quit. So as a team member or a manager, you have to watch how your team works together and WHAT makes them work together. Some one with good work ethics will be able to think and calculate so many things going on at once. This is not to say that if you can't do this, that you have bad work ethic by any means. You can stand in the background and still work as a team member and have good work ethic. There are those out there that keep to themselves but can blow so many out of the water with their work ethics.

Signs of not working well with others: Not standing with a group that is being trained, arms crossed a lot during the training process, saying they understand how something was done, doing it wrong and not asking for help. That one is a BIG one for sure. Personally, if I hired someone on to my team into one position and they couldn't take the time to even pay attention while being trained for one thing, they would not last long on my team.

Third, of course, the BIG D word! Drama. If you hired someone that just keeps starting drama, fire them! No matter how good they are, get rid of them. That is cause for high turn over rates. Let's say you have a new member on the team, things were good for the first few weeks and then one of your best employees comes to you with a 2 week notice. You know, for a fact, this person takes challenges head on and will pull that whole team through lunch rush without a single complaint. That's because he/she loves being in that position. So you are shocked when he/she hands you the notice. You ask why, if there is something going on you don't know about or anything else just to find out why this person, that loves his/her job and is fantastic at it, is all of a sudden quitting. For this first scenario, the employee tells you exactly what is happening. The new employee is starting drama when you have your back turned. Now this one is easy to deal with. You know what the problem is, you deal with it as you should and that employee feels appreciated and decides to stay. The second scenario is, of course, the employee says nothing. You have 2 weeks to find out what is wrong and start to watch more carefully. Now there are some that will figure it out in time to fix things and others will be too late. It happens. But this employee starting drama needs to go!

Fourth is communication. I can not stress this one enough! I actually have a personal story for this one. I decided I was going to take on 3 jobs with a kid as a single mom. Not my brightest move. But, never the less, I tried. All of them were part time. Uber, when I needed fast cash (had been doing it for a year at this point), EZ Mart, a gas station and The Childrens Place. Out of all of these jobs, TCP was the hardest due to the lack of work ethic and lack of respect given to management from others. There was one lady that was given a lead position which meant she was a closer on weekdays and could open or work all day on the weekends. She was very open and easy to work with. One day, the store manager was in a meeting later than expected and walked out on the floor after she was done to find myself at the register, writing notes in my notebook and the lead folding clothes to put on the tables. The lead and I just talked about me staying on the register while she works out on the floor doing things. We would switch on and off as needed seeing as though I was still new and training. The store manager said no to all of that and explained that during the week we need to get as much product out on the floor as possible. I accepted this and asked what she would like me to do. (Note, she was not rude, just very direct with this converstation). The lead took offense immediately and gave back attiude that was completely uncalled for. Well, to me it was. The store manager ended up staying for maybe 2 more hours because the lead and her talked about, excuse my language, stupid bullshit. I ended up walking down to another store to get a soda from a kind store owner and ended up going back to get one for the lead as well. They finally got done talking and we ended up only having a little time left before we closed the store so we just straighted up the clothing on the tables and hung up what we could. Now, the whole time we were working alone, the lead did nothing but say bad things about the 2 store managers. She also told me way too much about her personal life that I did not need nor want to know. So at this point I am very uncomfortable. The shifts to come got worse! The lead started having inappropriate conversations with the customers, yelled at me through the store to tell a customer that did not speak english that she needed to leave the store. Mind you, she did this every night we closed together and she always closed the store 15 minutes early, which I did not think was right nor fair. Either way, I got fed up. I ended up switching shifts from weekdays to weekends only and found out after a week of not working that the lead had quit. She had walked out after being confronted by the store managers. Come to find out, which is the whole reason i am telling you this story, she was doing things that no one would speak up for until I said something first. After I found out she left, I told the store manager I wanted to talk to her privately because the other employee was buddies with the lead and I did not need her hearing what I was about to say. I told her everything she did to me, the customers and that the other employee was in on it with her. The store manager stood there after I was done and I apologized for not coming to her sooner, that I had a note written up but forgot it when leaving for work that afternoon. She looked me straight in the eyes and said thank you. You are a great employee. Not only did you catch on to the job quickly working the few hours you work, you also had to go through a hell I didn't know was happening and the fact you felt comfortable enough to come to me and tell me about these things. The manager opened up about a lot of other things that she had heard and went through herself because of that lead. Let me tell you, that lead was a horrible person! Then the store manage asked me about the other employee. I was straight with her. The employee became the new lead, which obviously was fine with me. But then when I started closing with the new lead, I noticed things that needed to be handled and not by me. I have been a manager before but I was not her manager so I was not about to open that can of worms. Instead, I went to the store manager with it. No, not telling on her, she didn't do anything wrong. She was just not the right fit for the position at all. She was frantic when closing, almost treated me the same way the old lead did and the customers as well. So I felt it was the right move to tell the manager right away. She disclosed to me that the new lead was leaving a mess, register wise, for her to fix every morning. I told her exactly what she was doing and how she was acting about it. Told the manager I didn't want to say anything to the lead because she already didn't like me, which I was fully aware of when the store manager told me that the lead put in a complaint about what I did on my last shift with her, which was hardly anything. I was drained from working so many hours and was not feeling good. What that lead did not know was that I had called in because of a fever and the store manager asked me to go in but take it easy. (Note, I called in several hours before my shift and was able to break the fever with medication). So the manager knew why I was sitting and hardly touching anything. The lead messed up the register again and again. I was very confused why she kept making the same mistakes when she knew how to handle them, but I never said anything because I didn't need more drama. But come to find out, that store manager did not want me to leave because of my work ethic and the communication i upheld. So I will say it again, communication is key!

I know that i can cover way more in this area on this topic and by no means did I cover everything, but sadly it is 1 a.m. So I am going to call it quits for now, I am sure I will add more! Thank you and have a great day/night! RG